AUSTIN (KXAN) – An unusual work of art at  St. David’s Episcopal Church in downtown Austin is causing passerby’s to take a second glance and some are even calling the cops.

St. David’s, at the corner of East 8th Street and San Jacinto, is taking a new approach to getting the Christmas message across.

The church commissioned one of its young members to “tag” the outside of the Church with graffiti.

"The Light Interrupts". Advent graffiti outside St. David's Church.

The artwork starts on the retaining wall in front of the church and will end up wrapping around the side; the artist will add to it each of the four Advent weeks leading up to Christmas.

“Our point is that Advent is God interrupting the world with the coming of the Christ. And we were hoping that we’d get people’s attention by doing this,” said David Boyd, Rector at St. David’s.

The church caught more than people’s attention.

When the artwork first started popping up, the church was fielding questions from the mailman and even authorities.

“The second week [of the art project], when the young man was putting things up, it was getting to be evening and the police – doing their job – did come and they had handcuffs on him before we stopped them. [We] explained that this is intentional and it’s alright,” said Boyd.

The teen artist has an interesting back-story himself. The artist is a refugee from Burma (Myanmar). His family sought out the church when they came to Austin.

With such an enthusiastic response from the community, Boyd is looking at the possibility of continuing the project.

The church dates back to 1853.